Lots of travelling

In exactly 4 weeks I will be back in Kearney, back to work, back to Nebraska, back to the familiar. I can NOT believe how fast time has flown by and it seriously keeps going faster. Since spring break we have gone to Terezin, a day trip to Kromeriz, Ostrava, Krakow, and Auschwitz. In this blog I will talk about all of them except Auschwitz because I believe that deserves its own post!! (Which will be posted within 24 hours of this one)

Terezin is located outside of Prague in the Czech Republic, so it was just a little day trip, on Saturday, April 29th! We saw the sign out front which says, work makes you free. Terezin was used as a propaganda stage for the Germans when the Red Cross came to visit. They made the camp look like a country club and that the Jews were actually happy there. This of course was a lie. Although it was not an extermination camp, it was more of a transition camp, people did die there and the conditions were horrible. The Jews were housed in a tiny room, cramped with 60 people at a time. When the group of us walked into the rooms where they stayed we took up most of the room. I could not imagine fitting 40 more people there. The Germans gave the Jews one pail for their bathroom per room, and emptied it once a week, if that. People were put in cells when they were being punished that would be extremely small, would starve them, or isolate them in the dark. It was also hard to see the administration buildings, where the leaders of the camp lived, in comparison to where the Jews had to live. It was huge, plenty of room, a big lawn, and looked like a mansion. Terezin was very sad and difficult to see but it was nothing compared to Auschwitz.  After visiting the camp we went to the military fortress and went inside the museum there. It was very interesting and I am glad we could go.

On Tuesday of last week we went as a group to a day trip to Kromeriz, Czech Republic which was about an hour outside of Olomouc. When we got there we first went to the palace, which was impressive. The inside was beautifully decorated and full of furniture which looked very expensive to me. The gardens outside of the palace were so beautiful!! I love gardens and I love animals so to me it was perfect. I want those gardens to be my own; sadly I am sure I could never afford it. Then we made our way to the second oldest winery in Moravia. The cellar was so big and held tons (literally) of wine. About 80% of the wine there was white wine, which I was okay with since I am starting to like white wine more than red. After the tour we were able to try about five different wines and they were all pretty delicious to me! I was so glad I could go and see it and experience it.

On Friday we left to make our way to Krakow, Poland but first we made a stop in Ostrava, Czech Republic. When we got there we took a tour of an industrial factory which was quite massive and lots of iron was produced there. Over 3,000 people were employed at this factory at one time. We got to see the big furnace which powered most of the plant. We climbed up to the top and it was one of the easier climbs because we got to take a pretty cool glass elevator about halfway up. Honestly, the plant was not that interesting to me but I got to wear a hard hat so that was fun…

When we got to Krakow the first place we went was the salt mines. This was actually one of the better tours we have gone on, at least in my opinion. We had to walk down a ton of stairs to get to the bottom of the mine. Since it was a salt mine we were able to lick the walls, so of course I did. It was very salty and kind of gross. There were a bunch of statues made of salt that we also got to lick. Then there was a chapel area where concerts are held and wedding ceremonies. I would totally have my wedding there if I could. It took about three hours which was a long time because by the end of it we were all super hungry and had to go find the hostel still. We also got to go to the Krakow castle which was more like a castle that I envision. It had a huge wall around it and even had a dragon den. This was easily one of my favorite castles that we have been to. Krakow was not the city I was expecting, it was more modern and alive than I thought it would be. Also, it is a Pepsi city which made me extremely happy since I do not like Coke at all. I tried a bunch of new food and stepped out of my food comfort zone. I found new stuff that I really liked, you can see pictures below! Overall, Krakow was a pretty great experience.